How will extreme heat affect energy bills?

AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS CAN EXPECT TO SEE MORE than a rise in the mercury this summer. From June to September, the average cost of keeping a home cool is predicted to spike by nearly 9%-to $719.

- SOLCYRE BURGA

"There's a cost to climate change," says Mark Wolfe, the executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), which forecast the energy-cost rise in a report produced with the Center for Energy Poverty and Climate. "As temperatures rise, you need to use more electricity to run your cooling systems, and it's becoming more expensive-and will be more expensive-as we go forward." With the rise in the earth's temperature, the frequency and duration of heat waves are increasing.

And energy costs already have climbed over the past decade as people seek reprieve from the heat. The impact on household finances can be huge. "It's very hard to get hit with a high bill," says UCLA professor Alan Barreca, lead author of a study on the effects of increased summer temperatures and electricity disconnections.

"You end up thinking, 'Oh, do I have to cut back on other expenses, or do I just not pay and try to do some bill juggling?"" Rising costs are particularly overbearing to low-income households, which the U.S.